My Favorite Music of 2013

2013 was a great year in Music. Eminem released his best album in over ten years.

Based on my Last.fm stats, The ten artists I listened to the most in 2013 were:

Portugal. The Man

The Magnetic Fields

The Lumineers

The National

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down

Vampire Weekend

HAIM

Daft Punk

Eminem

CHVRCHES

Quantity wise, that is what wins. What about Quality wise?

The Portugal. The Man record includes my favorite Track One of 2013. It starts slow, but builds to a fantastic loopy alt-rock singalong.

The record of early 2013 for me was definitely the Lumineers self titled debut. Even though it had come out many months before, I didn’t discover it until 2013.

Another record I listened to a lot during the spring was Lone Bellow’s debut. A bit country and a continuation of the countryification of pop rock that The Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons are leading.

Daft Punk came out with there first all new music non film score in eight years and Random Access Memories failed to disappoint.

A fantastic back and forth between Eminem and modified lyrics from The Zombies is the highlight of Eminem’s best album since the original Marshall Mathers LP.

San Fermin’s debut always brings a smile to my face. It’s a heavily produced album and you can tell they are perfectionists, but I love what they accomplish.

The layered vocals combined with the expert musicianship of the Haim album makes it my favorite for 2013.